Jews & Sports

Glatt Kosher Stadiums

Time Out

Mordechai Siev

(Spotted by my father of blessed memory in Newsday, and from a NY
Times Magazine a while ago)

For Jews who attend night games at Camden Yards in Baltimore, a minyan
for the evening prayer, Maariv, is no longer a problem. Held at
the kosher food stand (!) behind home plate after the last Oriole out
in the bottom of the fifth, the evening service typically attracts 20-60
men and boys, some with baseball hats over their yarmulkes.

That's great! The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism stressed:

There is not the vaguest shadow of doubt that, wherever our feet tread,
it is all in order to cleanse and purify the world with words of Torah
and prayer.
It is said of the Time to Come: "A stone in the wall will cry out
and a beam from the tree will respond" [Habakuk 2:11]. At present,
inert creations are mute; though trodden upon, they remain silent. But
there will come a time when the revelation of the Future becomes a reality
Then the inert will begin to speak and demand: "If a man was walking
along without thinking or speaking words of Torah, by what right did he
trample upon me?"
By decree of Divine Providence, man goes about his travels to the place
where the "sparks" that he must purify await for their redemption.
The holy ones, who have vision, see where "their" sparks await
them and go there deliberately. As for ordinary folk, The Cause of all
causes and the Prime Mover brings about various reasons and circumstances
that bring these people to that place where lies their obligation to perform
the work of purification and elevation.
(Based on Hayomyom: 5 Adar A, 15 Adar A, 1 Cheshvan)

By the way, why is the minyan in the fifth, and not during the traditional
seventh inning stretch? Because it is always already dark by the fifth,
and we don't want to delay a mitzvah, right? Next, half-time at the Garden
and the Forum!

(Mordechai "Big Mo" Siev is in charge of Jewish student activities
at ASCENT OF SAFED.)

More Hot Dogs

In previous articles we mentioned the glatt Kosher hot dogs served at
Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium in New York, and at Camden
Yards in Baltimore. Now we found another Major League source. It seems
there are two Glatt Kosher hot dog stands at Jacobs Field in Cleveland.
One is on the lower level, in Right Field, near Section 109, and the other
is on the upper deck, behind Home Plate, near Sections 455 & 555.

(Based on a submission by Paul S. Wolf to the Jewish Travelers Forum:
<travel@shamash.org>)